The Art Of Communication

what are your intentions?

At all times, you should be conveying good thoughts, good words and good deeds. The only way to crush cynicism and eliminate skepticism is via virtuous goals and honest steps to achieve such goals. But people will only notice your deeds if they believe your words. And in order for your words to win over the doubters, you need good thoughts from the onset. Yes, it is normal to be tempted by forbidden fruit, as it is normal for your honesty to be questioned, but with time you will learn that you can achieve success in an ethical fashion, paving the way for further fruit down the road.

Make it a rule to play ethically. The true challenge in business is to maximize resources without giving in to temptation. After all, on judgment day — when an interviewer determines your fate, your supervisor determines your bonus, or an ethics officer reviews your file — you will not be present. How confident will you be that your deeds will be perceived in a positive light? To ensure that they are, always live virtuously so that you can rest in peace while you wait for the verdict.

After all, one can have good intentions in their personal life, but unless they portray themselves in a positive demeanor, their social status will suffer. Analogously, an executive who fails to win others over through his words will have limited success. Force is not the way to go — not in life, and surely not in business.

always know the time

Another crucial component of being an effective communicator is recognizing the environment you're in. One style of communication can be effective at a start-up, but fatal at an established company. In other words, the stage of a company's growth is fundamental.

Frankly, while execution and communication do not represent two poles, one can argue that at a start-up, execution is much more important than communication because, well, word gets around (for better or worse). However, as a company grows, one can execute but unless the communication is effective, the company could be going in the wrong direction, and in many cases, does. What makes this worse is that if the company is large enough, it will take a longer than normal amount of time to correct the course. By then, the ship may have already hit that iceberg.

If you are in a leadership position — be it within a department or atop an organization — you have to get the shots in (execution) but must keep your eye on the ball (communication). If you noticed, in this latter example, the communication symbolism was visual — for good reason. The lesson is that you have numerous tools with which to improve communications within a firm. In other words, you need not stand atop the tallest desk and yell out loud, but you do need to know who does what at which cubicles and how you can get your message across. Depending on your environment, the means can be very different.

If you see that the company is moving too fast and there are too many variables to consider, then sometimes the proper course of action is no action at all. Rather, take a step back to better see the field in front of you. This is, in essence, why some quarterbacks take the snap from a shotgun position. It gives them a better perspective and provides them with more time to react to the hell that is about to be unleashed before them.

execute your communication

Some may wonder how they can both focus on execution and communications. Well, ideally, you just do. But that is easier said than done. Realistically, this is where delegation comes in. If possible, hand off certain tasks and initiatives on to others who can execute and communicate, and focus on the larger picture. And what a picture it is.